He won’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2024 season, meaning if a team acquires him at that deadline, they’ll have him for three playoff series. Of course, the odds of the Nationals agreeing to a Soto trade before the Aug. 2 deadline are speculative. It would seem unlikely that such a blockbuster could come together so quickly, but then, this is baseball and stranger things have happened. So, which teams are best positioned to land Soto? Below, CBS Sports has ranked the 29 non-national clubs in terms of their perceived chances of striking a deal. Juan Soto could be moved soon, if not by the Aug. 2 trade deadline. USATSI

Tier 1: No Pay, No Play

  1. Athletics
  2. Marlins
  3. Rays
  4. Pirates
  5. Guardians
  6. Brewers We delete these six groups because of the economic element. Even if they weren’t trying to extend Soto, they would still have to pay his substantial arbitration awards. that’s not the style of these teams. You can make the case that the rival Rays, Guardians or Brewers should look into acquiring Soto for the stretch run, as the flags have been flying forever and they’ll have plenty of time to trade him and pick up prospects at a later date. We like the idea, but these kinds of maneuvers hardly ever happen anymore, and we’re skeptical that he’ll start again with a deal of this expected size.

Tier 2: Rebuilders R’ Us

  1. Royals
  2. Reds
  3. Diamondbacks
  4. Orioles
  5. Rocky Mountains
  6. Tigers While we recognize that some of these six teams look closer to rejoining the competitive ranks than others, we don’t think any of them will pose a serious threat to match the Nationals’ asking price. It would be cooler if they did, though. Where can Soto do his shuffling next? USATSI

Tier 3: Something is missing

  1. Small
  2. Rangers
  3. White Sox
  4. Angels
  5. Twins
  6. Parents As fun (or frustrating) as it would be to see Soto in a lineup with Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, or Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., we draw a line at this team because we think they fall short either financially either in perspective. Out of all the tiers so far, this is the first one where we feel like a team from here could make a real play — in other words, we’re getting hotter.

Tier 4: Rivals, not friends

  1. Brave
  2. Phillies
  3. Mets One question that will be asked of the Nationals is whether or not they are willing to trade Soto down the stretch. If so, those teams should move into the top tier, with the Mets standing out as one of the top potential landing spots for him. if not — and let’s face it, teams generally don’t want to trade their homegrown superstar for an opponent they’ll see at home and on the road constantly throughout the season — then that represents the cap. for this group. Regardless of the answer, the Mets (and, specifically, Steve Cohen’s fat wallet) will likely serve as a useful bogeyman for Soto and his representation between now and whenever he puts pen to paper on a new contract. Would the Nationals move Soto upfield? If so, these two could be teammates in the future. USATSI

Tier 5: Major market contenders, but …

  1. Star
  2. Blue Jays
  3. Red Sox Soto would make sense for any of those three teams — all competitive and based on big media markets — but we wonder if their front offices would be willing to commit to the contract terms he would demand. The Astros and Red Sox are generally managed by former Rays executives who either traded away or said goodbye to Mookie Betts, George Springer and Carlos Correa in recent seasons in lieu of massive extensions. (You could argue that Soto is on another level, but these players aren’t exactly chopped liver.) The Blue Jays, meanwhile, are led by former Guardians executives who have recently shown a willingness to hand out big contracts, but who apparently have they look to expand their own collection of young stars, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette. Would they have enough money to do both or the squad to pick Soto over them? We’re open to the possibility, but we’re not sure.

Tier 6: The top five

  1. Sailors The Mariners make sense on paper. They have a good farming system. They have few long-term commitments. They have a hyperactive general manager who has every reason to put the pedal to the metal to end the sport’s longest playoff drought. Would Jerry Dipoto be comfortable parting ways with several of his top prospects, possibly led by some combination of shortstop Noelvi Marte and pitchers George Kirby and Matt Brash? We don’t know, but he owes it to himself to think about it.
  2. Giants The Giants have previously drafted dark horse pursuits for Giancarlo Stanton and Bryce Harper. Top executive Farhan Zaidi also knows all about chasing stars from his time as a member of the Dodgers front office. The Giants have few major long-term commitments, and Soto would serve as Buster Posey’s spiritual successor as the face of the franchise. The problem is that Zaidi doesn’t have the kind of upside that some of his competitors have, meaning he might have to take back a bad contract, like Patrick Corbin’s, to make up for it.
  3. Yankees We are legally bound to include the Yankees near the top of these lists because of their financial strength and history of taking advantage of these types of situations. Brian Cashman has even kept prospects like Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza in recent years, giving him some legitimate youngsters. The interesting problem with the Yankees is that they have yet to resolve the Aaron Judge situation. The only way the Yankees fan base can be appeased if they let Judge walk after this season is if they have Soto either in the arm or on the way — and hey, there are plenty of legitimate baseball reasons to to favor a long-term commitment over Judge, including age, track record and injury history.
  4. Dodgers As with the Yankees, the Dodgers are always near the top of these lists. Andrew Friedman has shown in the past that he’s willing to pony up for top players, and Soto fits the bill in that regard. Depending on how the Nationals evaluate some of the Dodgers’ top youngsters — Bobby Miller, Diego Cartaya, Andy Page and so on — Los Angeles should probably follow the plan we laid out in the Giants section by taking on a bad contract except for Soto. They did something similar when they acquired Mookie Betts from Boston, so this might not be a big deal for Friedman and company.
  5. Cardinals This will almost certainly age badly, but yes, we think the Cardinals have the clearest path of any team to acquire Soto. They’ve acquired Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado in recent seasons and have traded Francisco Lindor, among others, showing they have the appetite and willingness to produce a blockbuster. The Cardinals also have the ability to offer a package that includes some combination of Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill, among others. Plus, Goldschmidt’s contract will be on the books after the 2024 season… or right around when Soto’s extension could cover his free agent years. It’s possible that Soto would prefer to play on a coast, but shy of that, Mike Rizzo should make one of his first calls about Soto to the Cardinals.